cable – The Saturday Evening Posthttp://www.saturdayeveningpost.com
Home of The Saturday Evening PostFri, 09 Dec 2016 19:01:39 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Tuning Outhttp://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2015/08/14/in-the-magazine/tuning.html
http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2015/08/14/in-the-magazine/tuning.html#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/?p=110535A small but growing number of people are giving up TV, for good.

]]>When Pope Francis recently confessed to a reporter that he stopped watching television 25 years ago, it reminded me that several of my friends had gone TV-free as well. I recollect them sharing the news with great braggadocio. One would have thought they were declaring their exit from a domestic terrorist cell. My oh-so-media-savvy buddies had quit TV? It seemed totally improbable.

And so it was. It turns out that most Americans who boast about “cutting the cord” are not dumping their TV sets at the curb. What they’re doing, like my pals, is canceling their cable — or satellite — TV contracts. Not such a major move, but a nice cost savings. You can still watch lots of TV programming these days on your computer or TV by subscribing to an online streaming service. Netflix is currently the most popular of those.

There is, however, a tiny subset of the population that has adopted a true zero-tolerance policy when it comes to television. Who are these people? According to Marina Krcmar, a Wake Forest University professor who wrote the book Living Without the Screen, the TV averse fall into three categories. The first group, which includes religious conservatives, simply detests the content, thinking it too sexual or violent. The second group believes that TV viewing disrupts family life. And the third, which tends to harbor a free-flowing countercultural bias, rejects outright the very notion of a TV industry. “They don’t like Hollywood, they don’t like being treated as consumers,” Krcmar told me.

Not surprisingly, intellectual elites got a head start on that trend. Listen to what was said about TV by none other than Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who wrote the best-selling book The Last Lecture. In 2007 following his terminal cancer diagnosis, he called out TV as the enemy of productivity. “If you really want to have time back in your life,” he told an audience at the University of Virginia, “unplug [your TV] and put it in a closet and put a blanket over it.”

Being ill, as Pausch was at the time, invariably helps set life in perspective. My friend Laura Schiff, a former journalist who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008, appreciates that point all too well. “Television always felt like a waste of time,” she told me the other day. When her old TV failed, she opted not to replace it. “No regrets. Without TV, I get a much deeper understanding of the world and what’s going on around me.” The amazing irony: Schiff’s late father, Arthur Schiff, was the genius behind such memorable TV marketing catchphrases as “Act now and you’ll also receive …” and “But wait, there’s more!”

For some Americans, there is no “more.” There is already way too, too much — too much onscreen sex, too much stupid programming, too many commercials for products no one needs (the Snuggie, anyone?). Most of all — and indisputably — “TV robs us of our time, our most precious asset,” as author Joshua Fields Millburn said in his acclaimed memoir, Everything That Remains.

Few will be shocked, then, to learn that even Krcmar, the Wake Forest communications professor, has given up on TV. No more cable. Occasionally she and her husband will watch something via Netflix.

People who have sworn off television “are highly contemptuous of the programs,” Krcmar told me. “They think of themselves as unique and iconoclastic.” She stresses that she’s not gone quite that far. Yet.

A few nights ago, coincidentally, an iconoclast who knows I’m an unregenerate watcher of TV, sent a text message that more or less sums up where we’re headed in the 21st century. “TV?” he wrote to me, mockingly. “So 2014.”

]]>http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2015/08/14/in-the-magazine/tuning.html/feed2Save $1,000 Per Year on Cablehttp://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2012/05/24/health-and-family/tech/save-on-cable-tv.html
http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2012/05/24/health-and-family/tech/save-on-cable-tv.html#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/?p=56059How to cut the cord and get your shows from the Internet.

]]>Your cable or satellite TV provider may want you to think you’re stuck with them, but you’re not. Thrifty consumers who cancel their cable or satellite TV subscriptions can save $1,000 per year or more. There are some drawbacks to this approach, particularly if you’re hooked on cable news or live sports. But the world doesn’t end after cable goes bye-bye. Cord-cutters are switching to over-the-air channels and Internet-streaming services such as Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, and Netflix.

Of course you don’t need cable or satellite to get basic network channels. When the U.S. transitioned to digital TV in 2009, broadcast channels got a major makeover with dramatically better picture resolution, color, and clarity. Today’s over-the-air TV is a different animal from the bygone days of fuzzy signals sent to rabbit ears that your grandfather had to hold onto to keep any picture at all. Digital TV is very good—if you can get it. To find out what your digital TV reception is like, go to the FCC’s DTV Reception Map at fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps and enter your zip code.

Cord-cutting is an easy way to save money, but it’s not for everyone. Without cable, you’ll have to work a little harder—or wait a little longer—to watch certain shows. First, you’ll need the right equipment, including a home broadband Internet connection, a Wi-Fi router—both of which you probably already have—and a video-streaming box such as Roku ($50 to $100), which wirelessly sends HD-quality video and audio from the Internet to your TV. You may already have a media streamer in your home and not know it. Many Blu-ray players, game consoles, and other Internet-connected TV peripherals have Wi-Fi streaming built in. Other streaming options include Apple TV ($100), a hockey puck-sized device handy for renting movies and TV shows from iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, and other online services. Apple TV works much like Roku but has fewer channels. For dedicated iTunes users, Apple’s set-top box is handy because it streams your iTunes music, movies, and TV shows to an HDTV.
Google TV is another option. Unlike Apple TV and Roku, Google TV isn’t a set-top box but software that brings online content including Netflix, Hulu Plus,and even full websites (which you navigate with a wireless keyboard, tablet, or other mobile device) to your television. A handful of TVs and peripherals including the Sony Internet TV (starting at around $900) and Sony Internet TV 3D Blu-ray player ($230) have Google TV built-in.

Watching Internet TV is much the same as the cable/broadcast experience, with a few differences. Say you have a Roku box and a Netflix subscription ($8 per month for unlimited movies and TV shows) and want to watch Mad Men. Using your included Roku remote you launch Netflix and select Mad Men from a drop down menu. The catch with Netflix is that it offers only past seasons of shows. The service has seasons 1 through 4 of Mad Men but not the current season 5. And Netflix typically doesn’t have theatrical films just out on DVD. What to do? Using your Roku remote, change the channel to Amazon Instant Video, which rents individual episodes of TV shows and just-released movies at prices ranging from $1 to $5. These costs are an annoyance, for sure, but for most viewers they’ll add up to a lot less than the monthly cable bill.

Caveats? None of these approaches match the convenience of live cable TV. You’ll be relying on a smorgasbord of programming from different sources, which takes planning and thought. If you like to sit back and flip through channels, cutting the cord is not for you. But if you’re willing to take a more active role in searching for programs, you may be ready to take the leap.